Editorials
Smoking Ban Explained
During the past month the Kansas Board of Regents reiterated a policy made more than two years ago—the ban on the sale of cigarettes at state-supported schools.
The Kansas Board of Regents and the KU medical center were among the few to take the report seriously and to follow with concrete action.
Basically, the rationale behind the ban was—and is—that the connection between cigarette smoking and lung cancer is so conclusive, and cigarettes so potentially dangerous, that the reagents, acting as spokesmen for the state school system, felt called to separate schools from the business of selling cigarette to students. More basically, cigarettes are poison, and KU or any other state school was not to engage in the business of selling cigarettes to students. More is the same as stocking guns and bullets in the bookstore.
The Regents re-emphasized their original statement following action by the student government at Kansas State University. The K-State student council, hoping to boost sagging income at the student union, sought the income from renewed cigarette sales.
THE REGENTS. IN A statement issued Oct.
23, replied to K-State that the ban would continue to remain in effect.
The sale of cigarettes was banned at KU, K-State and all other state schools in Kansas on March 16, 1964. The reasoning for the ruling has long since disappeared in the fumes of anger and outrage which have followed. For the record, the reason bears repetition and a bit of analysis.
THE KU MEDICAL CENTER actually took action first, for it realized the incongruity of selling cigarettes to students and teaching students to remove cigarette-poisoned lungs.
THE ORIGINAL ACTION came soon after a report by the U.S. surgeon general which linked lung cancer to cigarette smoking. National shock and a temporary drop in cigarette sales followed —then the warning was ignored.
A second university, also a state-supported institution, has followed the lead set by the Kansas regents. The University of Washington banned the sale of cigarettes this September.
A FEDERAL GOVERNMENT stamp warning of the dangers inherent in cigarette smoking will be placed on all packages of cigarettes by order of Congress before the year ends.
The Board of Regents cannot attempt to forbid smoking by students. The regents, in fact, do not expect to decrease student smoking by making the purchase of cigarettes inconvenient. The act of smoking is not within the jurisdiction of the regents. It is an individual's decision to purchase cigarettes at a local drugstore or to light up in the Union. The regents can't stop this—and don't attempt to.
The regents can—and did—get cut of the business of making a profit on the sale of cigarettes to students. The regents' action removed them from the responsibility for the effects of cigarette smoking.
THE ONE FAULT in the ban is that it was poorly explained. While it may have been understood at its inception, a wave of new students and campus visitors in the past two years has speeded the misinterpretation of the ban.
The regents, possibly progressive and not regressive in their action, have been characterized as blue-nosed Kansans creeping in blue-stockinged feet into the private lives of students.
Perhaps the ban might be better understood and some of the gripes silenced if it were explained each year. The School of Pharmacy might be induced, perhaps as a research project, to plan exhibits on the effects of smoking. A current issues forum, presenting both sides of the question, has been suggested. A policy statement might be inserted in the student handbook.
The original literature of the surgeon general's report could be made available to living groups.
The validity of the ban is debatable. To the non-smoker, it's irrelevant. To the smoker, it's a nuisance to be lived with, gripped about and circumvented with trips to the nearest shopping center. The ban may never stop student smoking, but it's here to stay—and KU isn't the last school to institute it. But it's here, and as long as it is, it's worth understanding.
— Judy Farrell
Medley'scenes have choppy flow
By Larry Ketchum
One hundred years of theatrical entertainment were staged last night on the boards of Swarthout Recital Hall. For first-nighters "An American Medley" was an evening of excitement, laughter, and pathos, as the cast of six romped through scene after scene.
PARTS FROM SUCH immortal works as "Uncle Tom's Cabin," "Anna Christie," "Winterset," "What Price Glory?", and "Mr. Roberts" challenged the abilities of the actors.
Acting is not all that is required in this production. Singing, pantomime, and dance all play their parts in making "An American Medley" an entertainment success.
FOLK, MINSTREL, and popular Broadway songs intermingle with the comedy and the drama of the production.
All performances in general.
were quite adequate. The challenge of being versatile in many roles was well met by Kip Niven, Brenda Currin, and Richard Kelton. Other members of the cast, Mary Linda Rapelye, Mrs. Ann Glaze, and Paul Hough fail to carry off their different parts with much individual distinction. The singing voices of the cast are clear, understandable, and very good.
THE ENTIRE production could use more polish. Scenes are often shaky in movement and lines sometimes escape the memory. Let's hope the muffed lines will be remembered for the remainder of the run.
A production of this magnitude, with over twenty scenes, requires an easy flow from one scene to the next. The individual scenes, with the exception of "Winterset," are interesting in themselves, but when one scene changes to another there are dead spots. The ac-
fors, at times, pick up a slow tempo at the beginning of a scene and work half way through it before reaching a moving pace.
A QUANT LITTLE number,
"Onward Spirit of Kansas," has been inserted in the middle of the medley and only heaven knows why. It has nothing to do with the history of the theatre in America. One suspects it is a commercial plug for the University of Kansas' Centennial celebration. The show is a part of this celebration but Kansas has not really found its spot in American theatre.
It Used to Be...
Unfortunately, "An American Medley" will close Saturday night. A more instructional and entertaining evening is not offered often.
Nov. 12, 1915
By Dorothy Elliott
We were thinking..
The student Young Men's Christian Association has organized eight gospel teams which make trips to fill unoccupied pulpits in churches in neighboring towns.
The Ames, Missouri and KU cross country teams will compete tomorrow for the Valley Cross Country championship. The meet will be run before the football game and serve as a side show.
We are not only gregarious animals, liking to be in sight of our fellows, but we have an innate propensity to get ourselves noticed, and noticed favorably by our kind. No more fendish punishment could be devised, were such a thing physically possible, than that one should be turned loose in society and remain absolutely unnoticed by all the members thereof.
William James
2
Daily Kansan
Friday, November 12, 1935
On The Side...
The federal government has forced the aluminum industry out of raising prices. Washington ought to realize that U.S. corporations do more for bolstering the economy than any governmental agency. After all, Alcoa shows a yearly profit. How much does the Post Office make, even though it has a monopoly?
Now that the fall faseo is over, and no more elections will be held until spring, we wonder if it was worth it. All that campaigning, broken friendships and petty accusations just to decide which party has a bigger hand in not
which party has a bigger hand in not running the campus.
KRAUSE
With all these unsatisfied leftists burning themselves to death on the east coast, one wonders if the power failure was really significant. If it happens here, we should get all the pro-Viet Cong volunteers together and have them burn themselves up. Gasoline gives a lovely light.
Kansas City, Kan., made a few mistakes on their federal poverty program. They forgot the poor were supposed to get the cash, not a relative of a town politician.
We wonder if the Statue of Liberty, a present from the French people, is really a sort of Trojan horse. Although we doubt if anyone with an ego the size of De Gaulle would fit in it.
Why are we having such a long war in Viet Nam? In World War II, battle grounds were named after easy to pronounce places, like Omaha Beach, etc. Have you ever tried to find PHHumbea on a map?
Harry Krause
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